Nagel
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Given name for a carpenter, the symbol of Nail
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 24 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
/ˈnaːɡl̩/(recorded in a dictionary) German · from Wiktionary
Nagel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 2.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 8.2K
- NLNetherlands1 in 8.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 396 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈38,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Given name for a carpenter, the symbol of Nail.
Cited for this meaning 1
- The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where the surname Nagel is found
(measured from records)Nagel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #115 | ≈38,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | — | Nagel | 209 |
| US United States | — | 14,545 | 1 in 23K | 15K | Nagel | 396 |
| ZA South Africa | #816 | ≈7,800 est. | ≈1 in 8.2K | — | Nagel | 71 |
| BR Brazil | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 90K | 90 | — | 4 |
| NL Netherlands | #704 | 2,103 | 1 in 8.2K | 2.1K | Nagel | 67 |
| AT Austria | — | ≈970 est. | ≈1 in 9.5K | — | Nagel | 60 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 838 | 1 in 10K | 838 | Nagel | 50 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Brasil.IO genero-nomes (IBGE Censo 2010 mirror, CC-BY-SA). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Nagel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, Aus mhd./mnd. nagel „Nagel“; plate shows vowel variants N(a/ä)gel (14,381 bearers, 2 types), i.e. e/ä variation in the surname.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
from Middle High German, Middle Dutch nagel, German Nagel ‘nail’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker of nails. Compare Enghsh Nail.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, Berufsname für den Nagelschmied; zu mhd./mnd. nagel 'Nagel'. Auch vereinzelt Übername für einen überheblichen Menschen oder Herkunftsname möglich. Bearer count: 15564.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, Berufsname: wohl für den Nagel-/Kleinmetall-Schmied, also den Nagelmacher; 15564 Träger.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, from OHG Nagal 'nail'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Conrad Nagelb. 1897USAmerican actor (1897–1970)
- Ernest Nagelb. 1901USAmerican philosopher (1901-1985)
- Thomas Nagelb. 1937USAmerican philosopher
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)46 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 24 countries.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Nagel mean, and where does it come from?
- Given name for a carpenter, the symbol of Nail. Recorded by The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History.
- How do you pronounce Nagel?
- It depends on the language: in German /ˈnaːɡl̩/ (Wiktionary); in Spanish /naɡel/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.
- Which countries have the most people with the surname Nagel?
- Mondonomo estimates about 38 thousand people named Nagel in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nagel. After it come United States, South Africa, Brazil and Netherlands; the country table on this page ranks them.
- How common is the name Nagel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 14,545 people named Nagel in 2010, about 1 in 23 thousand residents.
- How common is Nagel compared with other names?
- In Germany, Nagel is the 115th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Nagel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nagelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Nagel” — the 115th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.